Why would a family website like leucht.com open up an online store? Well, I’m sort of a geek if you hadn’t figured that out already. What kind of merchandise is offered at this online store? I have a whole suite of Dee Mack Class of 1988 related merchandise, including the famous 20 year reunion DVD and various refrigerator magnets and photo prints.
I also have a DVD full of old silent movies that my grandfather, Kurt William Leucht, and the Peoria Cinema Club created back in the 1950′s. Then there are a whole bunch of different types of items with my almost famous lemon blossom photo emblazoned on them.
Then there are some books that we have written and have decided to share. And lastly but not leastly, we have some really cool t-shirts that proudly advertise for this fine family website. I make very little profit, if at all, from the sales of this merchandise. It’s mostly just for fun. Enjoy! Here is a link to the leucht.com online store.
This video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnm_MKQmDxU) shows the real aftermath of the storm in my area. It rained for 3 days around here and we had some flooding. Then about 5 days later we started getting attacked by these ferocious flying beasts…
Just kidding. This is a little yellow rat snake we found “hanging out” at our front door the other day. I’ve seen a couple of these yellow rat snakes around here. A really big one and this little one. Neither has shown any aggression and I guess they’ll keep the rodents away. So I guess I’m not really bothered by them being around. The only other type of snake I’ve seen around here are the little black racers. They’re pretty common in this area and completely harmless. I witnessed a black racer catching and eating a little lizard once. That was pretty cool.
Recently I attended an IEEE technical conference in Big Sky, Montana. In case you didn’t know, Big Sky is a very nice ski resort located about an hour north of the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park. I mostly attended this conference because I was presenting a technical paper on a PLC software translation utility that I had prototyped. I seriously had no clue that the conference was being held at a major ski resort. It’s a really nice place. Here are a few photos. The main peak is called Lone Peak and it sits at elevation 11,253 feet.
After my paper was approved for this conference, I found out from a coworker (Glenn S) that it was a major ski resort. Luckily I grew up skiing in Colorado with my family and still had my old skis stored up in the attic. They hadn’t been used in probably 10 years, but they appeared to me to be in decent shape, so I packed them up and took them with me. My ski boots which were also stored in my attic for those 10 years were destroyed … from the heat I suppose. Mental note: Do not store expensive plastic items in the 150 degree attic! I borrowed some winter wear from a friend (Dave B) and did a couple half-days worth of skiing while I was there. Some photos are shown below. All the skiing I did in Colorado growing up led me to believe that I would never experience any better skiing anywhere in the world, but I must say that the conditions at Big Sky were better than anything I’ve ever experienced. This is a top notch ski resort and they take great care of their slopes. On a side note: My bindings were so old the ski shop refused to touch them and by the end of a couple days skiing, one of my skis was starting to de-laminate.
One day when there was nothing going on at the conference, I drove an hour or so down the road to check out Yellowstone. Here are a few photos I took along the way. Sadly, Yellowstone was closed for the winter. I felt a bit like Clark Griswold in National Lampoon’s Vacation after traveling all that way to find the park closed. But I made the best of it and watched an Imax movie and ate dinner and did some shopping in the little town of West Yellowstone. The town was mostly shut down also, though. It was almost a ghost town.
Back at Big Sky Resort, one night while I was walking around the base of the mountain after eating at a local restaurant, I heard the cheers of a large crowd coming from the mountain. I followed the noise (and the stream of people walking that direction) to find a quarter pipe competition in full swing. It was pretty fun to watch. Luckily I always have my camera with me when I travel, so I took a few photos and also some video.
What kind of merchandise is offered at this online store? I have a whole suite of Dee Mack Class of 1988 related merchandise, including the famous 20 year reunion DVD and various refrigerator magnets and photo prints.
